EDUCATION, TRAINING SHOULD BE FIRMLY PREMISED ON ETHICS, SAYS CIIFP CEO

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 8 -- Education and training must be firmly premised on ethics and professionalism as the building blocks of Shared Prosperity Vision 2030 (SPV 2030), said Chartered Institute of Islamic Finance Professionals (CIIFP) chief executive officer Dr Azura Othman.

She said there must be continued investment to elevate the capabilities and skills of the current workforce, especially through professional qualifications and training programmes that would boost the number of qualified professionals to enhance Malaysia’s competitiveness in the globalised economy.

Home-grown talents must be developed to become Malaysia’s future leaders and reduce the reliance on foreign expertise, she said in a statement on Budget 2020.

“The private sector must continue to increase investment in education, training and re-training, especially for the unemployed graduates to develop human capital for the next few generations to create a sustainable pool of talents.

“Policy tools, whether in terms of grants or tax incentives, can be intensified towards encouraging the provision of training to the low- and middle-income groups and increase their chances in participating in the formalised real economy, thus enabling them to climb the economic ladder,” said Azura. 

She said tax incentives must focus on improving financial inclusion to uplift the financial capacity of the low- and middle-income groups.

“This does not mean providing extra payouts and increasing lending but providing them with means and tools to bring them out of the low- and middle-income trap,” she explained.

Azura said the growth and success of peer-to-peer lending was a testament to the viability of risk-sharing contracts, where the investors took on some risks for higher return from the ventures they were financing. 

This way, finance would be grounded in the real economy, which is another core principle of Islamic finance, she added.

-- BERNAMA